Supercomputing's problem isn't power

The quest to develop at once-generation systems in high-performance computing has inspired technologies just as InfiniBand and parallel processing that have made their ways into data centers, nevertheless as the drive for exascale computing continues, it seems ingenuity is coming to an end. The government sees power consumption as the biggest problem and cost associated with exascale HPC yet Andrew Jones, writing at HPCwire, argues, that power isn’t the primary problem, programming is.

Problem for exascale computing

Power is a problem for exascale computing, and with current budget expectations is probably the biggest technical challenge for the hardware. Demonstrating the value of increased investment in supercomputing to funders and the public/media is probably an urgent challenge, too. However the top roadblock for achieving the hugely beneficial potential output from exascale computing is software. There are many challenges to do with the software ecosystem that will take years, lots of skilled workers, and sustained/predictable investment to solve.

But earlier we talk about a wholesale shift in hardware platforms, Jones, from Numerical Algorithms Group, asks us to consider software. Parallel programming is after all in its early days in terms of harnessing the massive compute available in a supercomputer, and Jones argues that figuring out solutions to just-identified problems associated with exascale computing will take large teams of experts and long-term investment.